It’s been a horrible year for the Arts in this hemisphere, so it is such a relief to be able to celebrate great news from one of our sister organizations. But there’s one little problem- there’s a missing piece…
My friend Bob Bernhardt was in Cincinnati last week conducting a Pops show. I don’t think he’ll mind if I quote from an email that he sent to a few of us about that fateful day:
The orchestra was seated in place, the Board of the CSO was there, as well as reps from the Opera and Ballet Boards. The announcement was that Mrs. Nippert, who has already endowed the CSO and CPO conductor podiums, is leaving 85 million dollars through the Community Foundation to benefit the Cincinnati Symphony! Holy Crapola. Of the 5% annual draw, 75% of it goes to the CSO to hire back players to their full compliment, and to ensure a 52 week season. The orchestra went wild with applause. 12% of the draw goes to the Opera so that they use the CSO, and 5% to the Ballet for the same thing. So smart. The remaining 8% of the draw will be divided among other arts groups at the Fund Board’s discretion.
It truly must have been an amazing scene. Anyone who has read my blog knows that I’m a big fan of the Cincinnati Symphony, and I don’t think this could have happened to a more deserving organization. Such fantastic news…. and yet something about it has been bothering me, and it took until today for me to figure it out. There’s a piece of the equation missing. Perhaps it’s not to late to fill it in.
Reading about Mrs. Nippert I was struck by one salient fact – I would argue that the reason why she has become a major donor to the CSO is not because she’s a scion of the Proctor & Gamble family. Neither is it because she & her husband owned the Cincinnati Reds for many years. Rather, I would bet that the reason is that she is a classically trained singer who had soloed with the orchestra way back in 1957.
In a previous post I mentioned how I thought it was overwhelmingly important for the future of Classical music that we encourage young people to pick up an instrument. The best way to ensure a future audience is to get young people playing, or as happened in Mrs. Nippert’s case, singing. So where in all this incredible news is the emphasis on Music Education? I couldn’t find a single mention of it. So I’d like to make a suggestion:
If I was Mrs. Nippert I would tie one little string to my gift to the CSO. I would say “I’ll give you this $85 million as long as each and every member of the orchestra commits to going into the community and teaching deserving students for four hours a week ……. for free.” Yes, you read that right – for free!
Here’s how it could happen: take $100K off the top of the $4Mil or so that will come annually out of the fund. Hire somebody @ a decent salary, take the rest of it as a program budget. The sole job of this new person would be to act as a program co-ordinator. Send the musicians throughout the greater Cincinnati area. Target the program towards Junior High/High school aged kids. Make it a part of the core curriculum of the orchestra to give something back to the community.
Can you imagine the impact this would have? First, there’s the basic PR. Instead of always demanding something (the nature of Arts organizations who live in the non-profit world – “We want money!!! Did we mention we want more money? Did we?”) there would be the headline of “Orchestra Gives Back To Community.” When have you seen that headline? You would have 360 hours per week (90 members X 4 hours) of community service in the form of the best trained musicians dedicated to ensuring that their art form continues. Then there would be the impact on the Cincinnati Youth Symphony Orchestra. In just a couple short years I’m sure they would be overwhelmed by kids auditioning for them.
But the real impact would be felt several years afterwards. If you have that many more kids able to study music through learning instruments then the next generation of your audience is already built in. They will be your next generation audience, and by extension they will bring family members, or friends, or consorts, or whatever.
Ok, I know there are problems here. I’m sure that the naysayers will have a field day with this idea. But that’s half the problem with what goes on in our business today – too many naysayers who stand in the way of changing who we relate to the people who are most important to us – our constituency. Because without them – our constituency, our audience – we’re just playing music for ourselves, and that’s not interesting at all.
I’ll see your orchestra musicians into the community ideas and raise you a basic outreach program to existing private teachers. The lack of relationship building issue with the local private music teachers is a pet peeve of mine.
I have yet to encounter an orchestra that reaches out to teachers on a regular basis and when they do, it’s usually an attempt to get them to hustle tickets. It is a disgrace and needs to change.
Much applause for Mrs. Nippert. And also to Mr. Eddins for his great idea and to Drew McManus for the additional suggestion. I have posted several places on the net that one important function for music education (here I mean learning to play an instrument) is to get a body of knowledgeable listeners to form the audience of the future. It’s part of how I got to be a regular at symphony and opera, and to be an amateur musician even now as I reach “senior citizenry”.
Congratulations to Mrs. Nippert and the CSO. What a wonderful legacy.
Students who are engaged in music education, as we all know, receive many great benefits from instrumental study. While audience development is important the short and long term benefits afforded by lessons far outweighs the need of future audiences. Our musician communities and orchestras need to be providing this kind of outreach for the betterment of our children, cities, and country.
I believe it is up to entire communities to provide the kind of music education outreach that you suggest. Our craft is handed down from generation to generation and not just in the classical music field. Students engaged in thoughtful study in any genre benefit greatly and still must be considered part of our future audience.
By the way, it would really be better if the CSO decided to make this kind of change in collaboration with their musicians for the $$ to be allocated for a program of this nature. Coercion is rarely an effective tool for community engagement.
Great post! If your suggestion were to come true, it would positively effect our culture. The lack of real creativity and engagement in the arts by most Americans today worries me.